Official Everybody Edits Forums

Zalgryth

Guest

Zalgryth's Riveting Tale on This Year's Updates

Hey all,

I'd like to start by saying hello. I rarely come on anymore, so most of you either haven't seen me in a long time or you've forgotten me. I just thought I'd drop by to give my opinion on recent updates, and why I believe that the woot update will have a negative impact on Everybody Edits. Keep in mind I have not played in a long time, so some of the information could be wrong. Please let me know if that is the case. I will be including a history of the updates from the past year, including my take on them and how they change Everybody Edits.

First of all, I want to give a warm thank you to the developers who continue to make the game better. Even though some updates don't get much appreciation, there are definitely some very noteworthy updates that change Everybody Edits for the better.

I'm going to go back to about a year ago and work my way to today. I will be linking to all the updates mentioned on the blog, skipping the posts that are not updates.

ONE YEAR AGO

November
Happy Thanksgiving! ? Two new smilies released.
Black Friday offers are now live

Looking back at those days is quite funny. Back then, updates were definitely not as common as they are now. So much has happened in a year!

In November, the only real update was two new smileys to celebrate American Thanksgiving, as well as a temporary Black Friday deal. Not much to comment on here.

December
Minor update to EE render engine
Where did the shadows go?
It?s Christmas in Everybody Edits! ? Loads of new presents!
Misc bug fixes and tweaks
Ba-dum tisch, Drum package is released!
Introducing quick chat.

December was definitely a fantastic month. The first update was one that wasn't too well-received. After all, it did break some art. All in all, though, it wasn't too bad. The second update was a good bug fix (no side effects).

The Christmas presents were very awesome! A few seasonal blocks came out, which helped decorate worlds for Christmas. But the best gift of all was the music blocks! They have been used in great ways (like Megalamb's hugely successful worlds) and in terrible ways (all over the place, making our ears bleed). Overall, this was a fantastic update. Later in the month also came the drum blocks, adding more music fun to the mix.

There were also some cool game tweaks, such as seeing your own world on top of the lobby. That was much appreciated.

Finally, December brought us quick chat, which is a little useful for communicating with non-chatters. Not very useful though.

March
Wow, we are back!
Easter 2012 Update

March was the start of a new era. MrShoe joined the development team. This is one of the best things to happen to EE! Thanks to his effort, lots of fantastic updates have occurred.

He fixed some spelling mistakes that were plaguing EE and implemented a way to see profiles without leaving the game. We also saw some neat new block packs, such as SciFi and Easter 2010.

April
Play Everybody Edits with friends

Friends lists?

For the sake of speeding things up a bit, I'll also skip the block packs and smiley updates, since they don't have any effect on the game.

June
Thursday release -Ninjas! ? for real this time!
Thursday release ? Finish that level.
Thursday release, introducing the first of 4 summer packages!

Making levels "winnable" was a really neat update. It became publicly visible when you actually finished the level, as opposed to the crown that only one person can wear. It really didn't affect gameplay, but it provides incentive to finish maps.

The new physics of swimming was also neat (though I haven't seen any really cool minis with them. Anyone want to share?) Also ladders.

July
The sky is the limit ? Thursday Release

White blocks. 'Nuff said.

August
Thursday Release (on a Friday) ? Castle pack and new shop

New shop. I find it neat but I still have some trouble navigating it. I wish that the names of the items would appear without having to hover, I like working with names and labels.

September
The final frontier

Space worlds! Although I don't see them used a lot, the additional physics is great for coming up with new challenges and puzzles.

October
?Human? Cannonball
Potions
Throw the third switch!
Normal backgrounds, advanced potions!

Absolutely amazing month of updates! Great job MrShoe (and Benjaminsen if he's still involved in development). Seriously, these updates really change dynamics and affect gameplay.

The new directional arrows are incredibly fast and can be used in many ways, such as launchers and portal replacements. Potions are incredibly cool, allowing individuals to alter their appearance and jump higher (with the promise of more potions to come). This is a great way to spend energy when you have everything.

Switches are again a whole new dimension of gaming. They can be used in "boss" maps, race maps, just about anything really! I do look forward to giving these a try.

November
woot in the world!?!

This finally brings us here, to the current day. The latest, biggest update is the introduction of the new "woots" system. It is both amazing in concept, yet terribly flawed in practicality.

"Why Zalgryth? Once the hack to change woots is fixed, what's the problem with woots?"

Actually, a lot. It's very unfortunate, and I really do hope there's a good fix to be found that makes up for the flaws in this system. Let me explain why I believe it's actually harming Everybody Edits at this moment (this was written before any updates that may come).

The concept of showing content other people approve of is nothing new. Digg, Reddit, and even Facebook use algorithms based on how much people like a post to bring it to people's attention. Reddit has upvotes, and Facebook uses likes and comments. It's a great way to get people to find interesting things. But this doesn't work for Everybody Edits.

Everybody Edits is a great social game. It gets a bunch of people together in one room, with time to discuss while solving unique puzzles (okay, a lot of stairs too). With the addition of new physics and new blocks, there's no shortage of interesting ideas to be created in worlds.

Part of the reason that it is quite a successful game is its community. It's very easy to go to the lobby, see a world with a bunch of people, and hop in and join in on the fun. Someone who creates a new world can easily invite their friends and "guestbomb" a world to bring it to attention, bringing in a lot of people who may be interested in the world. I've found a lot of great worlds this way.

You'll notice that this is no longer the case. As of right now, the world with the highest player count on the front page is 11. That is quite disheartening! I was to join on the fun, where is everyone?

The woot system causes the same worlds to be shown in the top of the lobby. Everyone who plays one of the top worlds will either like it and beat it, dislike it and leave, or find that it's boring because nobody is in there. But it will still be getting occasional woots. The worlds that are not at the top will barely be given any attention.

Now, if I create a new world, or even try to get people to enjoy my previous worlds, I cannot do so. I can't simply "guestbomb" and wait for people to arrive. I have to open it, and either invite friends from somewhere (spamming top worlds, maybe?) or wait patiently and hope that someone sees it among all the other 0 woot worlds and give it a woot. Even then that won't be anywhere near enough.

So now we have a bunch of pretty good worlds up top, but with nobody in them. And they don't change around very often. Maybe I need to come on a different day? Or at a different time?

Let's talk about the other aspects of the woot system. Levels! Everybody Edits has truly been changed to be a lot more like a traditional game, with social tricks as incentive for people to keep playing. Want to level up? Play a lot. Don't want to level down? Come back often. There's some neat tricks there, but I feel this isn't enough.

What's the point of the levels? Why do I want to be level 12? A good suggestion would be an increase in energy regeneration while at a higher level. At level 12, you could be receiving three times as much energy, making it great for purchasing items and the new potions. People will also be playing more to receive such great features. This is just an idea among many that could be used. There may already be an idea for them.

It's not all terrible, of course. The idea of getting good worlds to the top is a great idea, as is further gamification. It really complements the winner block and tried to get only the best out of Everybody Edits. But right now it's flawed.

Conclusion
If you've read all the way to here, I am both happy and surprised! Thanks for reading.

There have been fantastic updates over the last year, with great impact on the possibilities for the game. However, I feel that the woots system, as it is now, will only put Everybody Edits in a decline, and I really (really!) don't want to see that happen. I really hope to see a bunch of new and exciting updates (and more potions, too!)

Why did I write this? Because I felt like it. Also because I really care about Everybody Edits, and I wanted to show my deep appreciation to the awesome updates, as well as constructive feedback about others.

Thank you for your time. If you have any comments, feel free to post (even if you completely disagree with me!) Just don't flame.

Take care!
-Zal

EDIT: Oh yeah, by the way, if a mod feels like this wall of text should be in a sticky, by all means, lock this or whatever. I can copy it wherever you wish. I just feel it's rather... large, and more about a broad discussion of the direction EE has taken and will be taking, as well as thoughts on the EE community as a whole, etc.

Last edited by Zalgryth (Nov 20 2012 12:04:04 am)

Buzzerbee

Forum Admin

From: Texas, U.S.A.

Joined: 2015-02-15

Posts: 4,575

Re: Zalgryth's Riveting Tale on This Year's Updates

...if a mod feels like this wall of text should be in a sticky...

Someone's self-confident (;

I read through the whole thing and I must say that this is a very neat perspective on everything. Though I'm not sure what the point of having an elaboration on the previous updates, it's nice to look back on things.

Great work, Zalgryth!

(Oh and you have a few grammar mistakes in there, such as on the 7th paragraph in November:)

I was to join on the fun, where is everyone?

But that's just my OCD that cares about that.

Last edited by BuzzerBee (Nov 20 2012 12:20:49 am)

---

tak4n

Member

Joined: 2015-02-17

Posts: 1,883

Re: Zalgryth's Riveting Tale on This Year's Updates

My favourite update in EE was the 3 smilies Templar, Nurse and Angel. I wasn't beta at the time and oh boy how excited I was for the 3 smilies to come out of beta. Templar and Angel came out of beta first. The excitement made me buy beta just so I could buy the Nurse from the shop. That update was so much fun.

Looking back at that. It feels like an ordinary update a lot worse than most of the updates MrShoe releases now. But the fact that such an update was so rare and that the 3 smilies were the most creative ones that were made in EE at the time. That was the great time.

EDIT: After reading the wall of text:

The woot system has only been out 1 week. Give MrShoe a chance, he already promised better world assortment in the future. And everyone has their suspicions that you will be able to get certain things from the shop at certain levels. Just wait and see, I am sure MrShoe will meet our wants.

Last edited by tak4n (Nov 20 2012 12:59:23 am)

---

Zalgryth

Guest

Re: Zalgryth's Riveting Tale on This Year's Updates

Someone's self-confident (;

Took me a while to figure out what you meant lol. To clarify: I was referring to the existing update sticky.

Anyway I'm in bed typing on my phone. Will look back here sometime tomorrow.

Cheers.

Echo!

Guest

Re: Zalgryth's Riveting Tale on This Year's Updates

But that's just my OCD that cares about that.

You have OCD for real; diagnosed?, or just "I realz OCD { "

Buzzerbee

Forum Admin

From: Texas, U.S.A.

Joined: 2015-02-15

Posts: 4,575

Re: Zalgryth's Riveting Tale on This Year's Updates

But that's just my OCD that cares about that.

You have OCD for real; diagnosed?, or just "I realz OCD { "

A slight case, yes. It doesn't affect me much over the internet but in real life I get so angry when things aren't symmetrical and clean.

---

meep805

Guest

Re: Zalgryth's Riveting Tale on This Year's Updates

^ I know how you feel, I can't stand things looking off centre or just if there's that line that looks a little out of place.

Arceus64

Guest

Re: Zalgryth's Riveting Tale on This Year's Updates

I liked your writing.

I agree with most except for October, to me that killed EE all by itself.

XxAtillaxX

Member

Joined: 2015-11-28

Posts: 4,202

Re: Zalgryth's Riveting Tale on This Year's Updates

Last edited by ?tilla (Nov 20 2012 8:46:03 pm)

---

*u stinky*

soccerfreak006

Guest

Re: Zalgryth's Riveting Tale on This Year's Updates

That was very riveting

Echo!

Guest

Re: Zalgryth's Riveting Tale on This Year's Updates

But that's just my OCD that cares about that.

You have OCD for real; diagnosed?, or just "I realz OCD { "

A slight case, yes. It doesn't affect me much over the internet but in real life I get so angry when things aren't symmetrical and clean.

Sorry to take this off topic: But I know how you feel my mopm has a serve OCD an is home-bound, everyday she has to clean the whole old, and I mean the whole house; Disinfect, polish, scrub, hover, she is scared of contamination, she spends about 8 hours cleaning, god only knows how, our house is spotless.

On topic: I would have to agree with most of this, though, I am not going to judge "woots" yet as they're kind of still a work in progress, how long did this take to type up?

Aoitenshi

Member

Joined: 2015-02-18

Posts: 2,058

Re: Zalgryth's Riveting Tale on This Year's Updates

I'm glad to see someone actually takes the updates the positive way! Most of them are ungrateful peeps who swears over anything for Shoe's update. Reputation to you, optimist guy!

Cyral

Member

From: United States

Joined: 2015-02-15

Posts: 2,269

Re: Zalgryth's Riveting Tale on This Year's Updates

Forgot about the part where you released your bot unobfuscated and caused everyone to make lame bot copies.

---

Player Since 2011. I used to make bots and stuff.

crastopher

Guest

Re: Zalgryth's Riveting Tale on This Year's Updates

Wow, that's quite a perspective you have there, Zal.

Honestly, I don't like woots, as of now, but if MrShoe takes in some of the woot ideas from the forums, and uses them, I'm sure he can stabilize this update.

Even with the debating skills I've gotten over the years, I can't clarify my statement as good as you did. This is very clean and persuasive! Honestly, if you keep writing like this, you will become really popular on the forums!

Remember, I never forgot you
~Crastopher